The present invention relates to a marching carrier for supporting a musical instrument such as a marching drum on the front of a player.
A player plays the musical instrument such as the marching drum supported by a shoulder marching carrier in a parade or the like, for example. In this case, the player may play the musical instrument not only when he/she is standing still but also when he/she is moving. Therefore, the marching carrier needs to ensure that the musical instrument is supported on a body of the player. For this reason, a mainstream type of marching carriers is not a belt type for hanging and supporting the musical instrument but a type in which a hook-shaped shoulder portion placed over both shoulders of the player and a plate portion for supporting the musical instrument are integrated with each other.
However, though such an integrated marching carrier can reliably support the musical instrument, its shoulder portion is not deformed along the body of the player unlike the belt-type marching carrier. As a result, no sufficient contact areas between the marching carrier and the player can be obtained and a load of the musical instrument concentrates on specific positions such as shoulders and a back of the player to thereby increase the load on the player. Therefore, in order to lighten the load on the player, there is proposed a carrier in which a shape, a position, and the like of a shoulder portion are adjustable according to the body of the player. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 1,191,425 discloses a carrier including an upper plate, arms pivotably coupled to an upper end of the upper plate, and a lower plate pivotably coupled to a lower end of the upper plate. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,610 discloses a marching carrier including a pair of shoulder bars, in which a distance between both shoulder bars can be changed. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,407 discloses a marching carrier including a pair of straps pivotably coupled to upper ends of frames. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,886 discloses a marching carrier in which lengths of shoulder straps can be changed. The U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0186151 discloses a marching carrier in which thicknesses of back cushions can be changed by blowing air into the back cushions.
When the player supports the musical instrument on his/her front by using any of the above carriers, the player mainly receives the load of the musical instrument on his/her respective parts, e.g., an abdomen, a back, and shoulders, which are in contact with the carrier. However, according to the carrier disclosed in each of the above documents, the carrier cannot be adjusted separately for the respective parts such as the back and shoulders of the player, though angles and positions of the shoulder portions are adjustable. As a result, no sufficient contact areas between the parts and the carrier can be obtained depending on shapes of the back and shoulders of the player. Especially when the musical instrument supported on the marching carrier is heavy in weight, the load of the musical instrument concentrates on specific parts such as the back and shoulders of the player and the load on the player is not lightened.